How madagaster came to be
by roxygoth
Summary: Ever wonder exactly how Madagascar ended up on the big screen? This story will tell all. Human AU, this story will contain OC's and a little bit of romance.
1. Chapter 1

Hey, Roxy Goth here. This is a story I've been planning for a while, so I hope you like it. It does contain OC's, so don't read if you hate them. It is also human AU and the POM characters are in sheltered accommodation. Due to the plot there may be some OOC, but hopefully not too much.

The original four from Madagascar will be in it to, the lemurs won't be for now. They are in 'sheltered accommodation' for teenagers in care.

I have gone with the semi-confirmed theory that one of the penguins is female; in my case I'm viewing it as Kowalski, because it's a gender-neutral name.

I do take feedback, so don't hesitate to contact me if you are confused about something. Feel free to check out my profile.

I do not own POM and any associated characters in any way shape or form. I do own my oc's and ST Nicholas school.

The ages are as follows, Skipper, Rico, Kowalski – 17 Private – 15. Gloria – 18, Alex – 16, Marty – 16, Melman – 19.

"Melman could you pass the milk, please?" Gloria Laymen said as she poured her cereal.

"Here."

"Thanks."

In the background the two of them could hear voices. Then the door burst open and Alex Mayne tumbled through it. "Hurry up! We need to eat breakfast so we can get down the football field, Marty…erm, Marty? MARTY!"

"Whoa, chillax dude." Martin 'Marty' Johnson said. "I am literally next to you; you don't need to burst my eardrum."

"Whatever. Hey Gloria. Melman! Melman, Melman, Mel-man! Nice to see you!"

"Y-you literally saw me last night." Melman said tiredly.

"Yeah, but that was 8 whole hours ago!"

"Yeah, get with the groove, Melman. Alex can't possibly survive unless he has a sufficient amount of people to show off to." Marty said, rolling his eyes.

"Can it Marty! Can I help it if I'm awesome?"

"That's the last time I'm letting you drink coffee before bed. I don't even know why I thought that would be a good idea." John Exe, one of the staff, said from the chair he was sitting in. "Now will the pair of you sit down before I chain you? What's the excitement anyway?"

"Dude, it's been raining for the last week. Todays the first day we get to go out on the wide open spaces!"

"Or as normal people know it, the park." Gloria said. "You know the one for 10 year olds."

"Hey! I'm 10, at heart anyway…"

"Neither of you are going to the park." Alice had joined the party. "Have you forgotten its clothes shopping today? You start back at school next week. Or college." She added sharply as Melman and Gloria opened their mouths.

"What's going on?" Skipper Jones asked his siblings behind him. They looked quite a force to be reckoned with, all dressed in black and white outfits, black jeans, white tops and black clip-on ties. And the fact they all had black hair just cemented the out-of-a-old-fashioned-spy-film look.

"We're going clothes shopping." Alice said bluntly. "Get your things."

"Do we have to?" Private said, whining a little. "We went last month!"

"Yes and you lot a growing ridiculously quickly, plus its school and you all need new jumpers. Now move before I drag you there myself." Alice stomped of upstairs.

"Does she realise how old we are?" Kowalski muttered, watching the annoyed carer leave. Next to her Rico guffawed a little.

"Great. A whole day wasted." Skipper stuffed his hands in his pockets and turned into the living room, sibling following like a train. "Unless…" He stopped suddenly causing a collision. "That's it! Listen up guys, here's the plan…"


	2. The escape

**Hey, I'm back! Thank you so much for the reviews for the first chapter, they were great. **

**See chapter 1 for the disclaimer. **

"Jones's! Get down here!" Alice hollered from the doorway. John and the rest were already in the minivan, now all she was waiting on was the Jones siblings. "Now! I MEAN IT!"

"Geez, alright Alice, don't burst an artery. We're here." Kowalski said coolly from the top of the stairs.

"Plan in action?" Skipper murmured, as the irritated carer flounced out to the minivan. The rest of his siblings nodded their agreement.

As they climbed onto the van they instantly made their way to the back were they always sat. "Now, Rico!" Skipper said, and Rico immediately tried to open the window.

"Locked." He frowned after five unsuccessful attempts.

"Yes, after your last escape I thought it best." John said from the front. "Now, buckle up."

Rolling their eyes the four did so and the van stated off.

After checking Alice wasn't looking Marty turned around to speak to them. "That wasn't very subtle."

"Wait for it." Kowalski smirked.

"Soldier!"

"Geez, Skipper, chill out! I wasn't going to _tell_ him…"

"Tell me what?" Marty asked, curiosity spiked.

"You'll see." Skipper said, calmly.

"Ah, c'mon! Just tell me!"

"No."

"Tell me!"

"No."

"T-ell meeee!"

"No! And if you ask me one more time, I will get Rico to break your face, are we clear?"

Taking one look at Rico's wild grin, Marty swallowed. "Clear. They're such weirdoes." He muttered under his breath to Alex who was sitting next to him.

Taking one of his headphones out Alex stared blankly at him. "Sorry, what?"

"Nothing. Go back to your music."

Meanwhile opposite from the boys Gloria was shooting the Jones's a curious, slightly irritated look. "What are they planning?" She wondered out loud.

"I-I don't know." Melman said, taking her question literally. "I-I wouldn't try t-to get inside their heads. They're a little…" He made cuckoo motions, sending the four behind him a nervous glance to make sure they couldn't see him.

They could, after all there was a window next to him showing his reflection but the four just smirked at each other. They were more than used to people thinking they were strange by now. And they liked it.

After a tense journey and a little arguing. [This is my side, Marty! Oohh, well, sor-ry, I didn't see your name on it!]They made it there in one piece.

"Right everyone here?" Alice said, anxiously. She hated clothes shopping; it was one of the major tensions in her life. Everyone nodded. "Good, let's go, and for god's sake, stick together!"

Five minutes' walk later and they were outside Debenhams. "Right everyone here? Alex? Marty? Gloria? Melman? Skipper?" Silence. "_Skipper_? SKIPPER!" Looking around she realised that actually none of the siblings were there.

"How the hell have they pulled that of?" John voiced the question that was racing through Alice's brain.


	3. McDonalds

**Hey, I'm back. Hope you lot like this next chapter. This is one to also [briefly] feature one of my OC's. His name is not revealed because of the way the story is going to be.**

**Flash back is in italics, present-time in normal font.**

**See chapter 1 for the disclaimer.**

_3 Hours ago:_

"_Listen up guys here's the plan." Skipper said. "When we get on the van, we go straight to the back. Then, Rico, you try to open the back window, make it really obvious."_

"_Skipper, won't the back window be locked?" Kowalski asked. "John did say he'd lock it after what happened last time."_

"_That's what I'm counting on soldier. Then Alice and John will think we've already tried to escape, and let their guards down. So when we get to the shopping centre we'll leave."_

"_Alice will check if everyone's there." Rico pointed out. _

"_Ah, I forgot about that part…"_

"_Idea, Skipper." Kowalski said._

"_Go ahead, soldier."_

"_What if we allowed ourselves to be seen by Alice when we get of the van and she checks everyone's there? Then on the walk to the shops we leave?"_

"_That way she won't notice 'till it too late!" Private grinned, catching on. "Nice one Kowalski!"_

_Kowalski flipped her hair back at that. "Well, thanks." She said smugly. _

"_Okay, that's a plan. Everyone agreed?"_

"_Agreed."_

Present time:

"I can't believe Alice didn't notice us leaving." Private said, as they walked along a busy street.

"I can." Skipper said, flippantly. "She was just focused on getting there. Never mind the plan worked." The four Jones's high-fived.

"So, what are we doing?" Kowalski asked.

"I dunno. Anyone got any suggestions?"

"Hungry." Rico said, rubbing his stomach a little

Skipper grinned. "Okay guys, first thing on the agenda: food. McDonalds anyone?"

"Skipper, we haven't got any money. Alice has it all." Private said, frowning a little.

"Don't worry, soldier. I already thought of that…"

Five minutes later they were observing the queue in McDonalds and casually eavesdropping on people's orders.

"Hi, can I get two chicken nuggets and chips, two cheeseburgers and chips, and one water, with three chocolate milkshakes, please?" A middle aged man with spectacles said.

"Anyone like the sound of that?" Skipper checked. Nods all round. "Let's go then, Kowalski, you're on."

As her brothers disappeared, Kowalski stepped out of their hiding place and walked forward, suddenly she tripped letting out a cry of pain. Immediately everyone turned and a couple of people at tables came to see if she was alright. Meanwhile while everyone's attention was on Kowalski, Skipper swiped the meals one of the staff had put in front of the man before. Then he handed the bags to Rico and Private who scampered to the exit. He then waved at his sister who saw and understood immediately.

"I think I'm alright." She said to the kindly old women who'd come to assist her. "Honestly it was just a shock, that's all. I'm SO clumsy." That was a lie of course, the day Kowalski was clumsy was the day the sky turned green, but the old women brought it.

"Well, if you're sure you're alright…"

"I am." Kowalski gave a small embarrassed smile as she got up. "Honestly. Thank you for helping." Normally she didn't bother with that bit, but the women in front of her just looked so earnest.

"Oh, it's no bother. If you need me to fetch anyone…"

"I'm fine." Kowalski said firmly, knowing she was coming across as rude but honestly not caring. She'd been given the signal and had to leave. She made her way through the crowd muttering a little to herself about WHY did people have to interfere with their plans? When suddenly she collided with someone.

"HEY! Watch it!" A male voice snapped.

Already irritated Kowalski looked up at the idiot who'd blocked her path. "Me watch it? You were in my way!"

The man, who looked like as wide as a door and as tall as one to, shot her an irritated glare, as she staggered to her feet. "I was standing here minding my own business! You were the one who banged into me! And you made me spill his drink."

Kowalski was about to shoot the guy a cutting remark when she heard Skippers calm voice. "This guy bothering you, Kowalski?" He said it politely enough, but there was a warning tone to his words.

The guy turned around and seeing three guys blocking his path, all glaring fiercely frowned. "You betta' not be trying to threaten me. I could knock all of you out if I wanted to."

"Sure you could." Rico said rolling his eyes. He came across these types of guys all the time. All talk and no game.

"I could!" He looked like he was about to say something else when his phone rang. The guy answered it, still staring suspiciously at the brothers. "Hey. I'm on my way. Just bumped into some idiots that's all. You alright? What? I'll be right there. Listen, the idiot girl made me spill your drink, do you want me to bring you another one? I was just asking! Alright, calm down, I'll be there in five." He hung up and glaring straight at Skipper and said. "You're lucky. Dave needs me. I gotta go sort Dave out. But next time I'll getcha."

"Sure you will." Skipper said in the most bored tone imaginable.

The guy stared at them for a second, before walking of, batting a couple of other people away.

"Wonder what his problem is?" Private said, as Kowalski joined them.

"No idea, but never mind. Let's eat." So five minutes later and they were sitting on the floor outside a shop eating and joking together. They were disturbed, however, by Alice, the rest of the group behind her.

"WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN!" She shrieked, making everyone within' 10 miles turn their heads.

"Eating." Skipper said, staring at her.

"I can tell that. Where did you get the food from?"

"You know, Alice, there's this new place called McDonalds."

"Don't try to be smart with me. I never gave you permission to go to McDonalds! Where did you get the money from anyway?"

"Found a 20."

"UGH! Just get in the van before I kill you. And you lot aren't having any tea tonight."

"What is for tea tonight anyway?" Gloria asked, clearly bored out her mind.

"Sheppard's Pie." Everyone groaned.

"Wow." Skipper said, under his breath as they march in the middle of the group so they could be seen by all. "That really did work out didn't it? I hate Sheppard's Pie."


	4. St Nicholas

**Hey, I'm back. I know I only updated this yesterday, but I've actually planned this fic out a bit now and the next chapter was begging to be written.**

**This chapter gives you a bit of information about St Nicholas and introduces one of the re-occurring characters and one of the main OC's. **

**There is a bit of language. [One swear word only]**

**See chapter 1 for disclaimer.**

One week later and Kowalski's alarm clock was ringing. She casually turned it off and stretched.

"Morning." Gloria said. Being the two only girls in the home they shared a room.

"Morning." Kowalski sighed. Then paused, she was forgetting something. "Oh shit school!" With that she leapt out of bed and hurriedly started pulling on the uniform she left out last night.

"You look ridiculous." Gloria laughed after the irritated girl had finished.

"Oh thanks. Remind me to compliment you the next time you pull on an outfit." Kowalski snapped hands on hip. The school uniform was a purple jumper with black trousers, worn with black flat shoes. Gloria was right, she did look ridiculous.

"Whatever." Gloria said, finishing dousing herself in perfume. "Let's get downstairs."

"Oh look, you're in colour." Marty grinned as Kowalski entered the room.

"Oh, shut up." She rolled her eyes. "Like you look better."

Marty looked down at the multi-coloured top he was wearing. "What's wrong with it?"

"You look like you've vomited up a rainbow." Kowalski told him bluntly, sitting next to Skipper. He smiled at her.

"Morning soldier. You ready?"

"As I'll ever be."

15 minutes later they were in the minivan.

"Cheer up Kowalski!" John called, noticing her staring out the window. "It's only a new school, not the end of the world!"

Kowalski ignored him, as he was clearly delusional. This was not only a new school; this was a new special school. Last year she'd been diagnosed with autism. One of the college staff had noticed her not interacting with the other students and made enquiries, ran tests, that kind of thing. Next thing she knew she was being told that she was moving to Saint Nicholas.

Saint Nicholas school was for children aged 6 – 21. It covered a wide range of disabilities by the sounds of it. There were four 'houses'.

West House, for people with physical difficulties.

East House for people with various different mental difficulties.

South house – for people who fell in-between, i.e. a mix of physical and mental difficulties.

North house – which was the same as south house.

Kowalski had been put into North house. She was to join class 'LM', which according to the head Mrs Gray was for 'People with a high IQ', so basically geniuses.

Well Kowalski thought as she smiled a little. What was she if not a genius?

Half an hour later everyone had been dropped off and Kowalski was waving John goodbye. Sighing she turned and observed the building. In big letters across the door were the words. 'South house' as she approached it she saw a sign attached.

'This is South House, if you want any of the other houses please use the side gate. Kowalski turned, located the side gate immediately only to realise it required a code to get it. "Well that's stupid." She said, out loud. Going back to the door she looked over it again, this time observing a bell by the side with another sign by it.

'Please ring for assistance' so she rang. And waited. When no answered she rang again. No answer. On the third time she was ready to kick the door down, just as she was moving her foot back however the door was opened by a small black boy, wearing the same uniform. Kowalski immediately put her foot on the ground and said.

"Hi, I'm new. North House. I know I need to go round the side gate, but I can't get in do you…" She never got a chance to finish because the boy left the step and went round to the side gate, as Kowalski followed she could see him punching in a code. 1967, her sharp eyes noted.

He turned to her. "This way." Beyond the gate there were three more buildings exactly like South House, all with the respected name above the door. The majority of the space in between the buildings was grass, apart from a small building in the middle which had concrete and a few benches around it.

"Cool." Kowalski said, genuinely impressed.

"Straight ahead. North House is there." The boy said, pointing. He then started to walk off.

"Wait! What's your name?" Kowalski yelled after him.

"Harvey!"

Feeling a little perplexed the girl stepped up to North House's front door and knocked the door.

She didn't have to wait long this time as the door was immediately opened by a girl with a black pony-tail. "Are you new?" Were the first words out of her mouth.

"Yes…"

The girl stuck her hand out. "I'm Katie. Katie Karate they call me. Come in. Do you know what class you're in?"

Shaking the girls hand Kowalski said. "LM."

"Ah. You're with me then. Come on, I'll show you to our class-room. What's your speciality?"

"Speciality?"

"Like me, my speciality is martial arts. I know every form there is. I've been training since I was 4. So what's yours?"

"Er. Science I guess?"

"Ooh, science, nice. We've already got one of them, but another's always nice. Here we are." While talking Katie had led Kowalski though a corridor, up a staircase and to a classroom. "In we go." And with that she swung the door open.

"Oh you have got to be joking." Kowalski said.

**For those of you who after reading this chapter are a bit like 'A disabled school?' oh no! What if she gets the facts wrong and offends people? Then a couple of things.**

**Number 1, every disability mentioned has been researched. As however I am only a teenager who has just started working with people with disabilities I may get a few things wrong, not intentionally. **

**2- Normal Special schools only go up until age 19. After that the students move onto college which is open for any age and at any time in a person's life. **

**3 - I work with people with disabilities so hopefully the portrayals will be accurate.**

**4 – The rest of the fic will take place over the course of a school year. It takes place in Britain, so the school terms will be in line with that. They'll probably be like a chapter for Saint Nick, then one for Madagascar and so on. After the next two chapters which take place in Saint Nick.**

**5 – Every fic that's ever posted runs the risk of offending people in some way, especially with OC's. They are a risk. So although I do take constructive feedback I DO NOT tolerate flames. **


	5. OC's

**Hey, I'm back. With the second update this week. This chapter focuses entirely on OC's [apart from Kowalski, obviously].**

**I still don't own the penguins of Madagascar, still do own my oc's and St Nicholas's.**

"Oh, you have got to be kidding me." Kowalski said in dead-pan tone. She took one step into a room and the first thing she saw was him. The guy from McDonalds. And judging from his reaction he'd recognised her too.

Katie however doesn't seem to have picked up on the suddenly-awkward atmosphere and was yelling across the room. "Rhiannon! The new girls here, we're by the door."

A tall black girl immediately got up and made her way over. At first Kowalski had wondered why Katie was being so specific, after it was fairly obvious they were by the door due to the fact it was behind them. However as soon as she saw the white cane Kowalski knew. The girl was blind. She stopped just short of the science whiz though and spoke while extending her hand. "Nice to meet you, my name's Rhiannon." Feeling a little bit awkward, Kowalski didn't know what to do until Katie stood on her toe and hissed.

"Shake her hand, you idiot." So blushing, Kowalski obliged. Rhiannon smiled and straightened up a little.

"It's alright; most people don't seem to know how to act around people who are blind. What's your specialty?"

"Science."

"Ah, mine's Maths. I want to teach it someday." Smiling again, Rhiannon turned her back and made her way to her seat. Subconsciously Kowalski found herself letting out a sigh of relief. She looked down and started fiddling with the bottom of her jumper.

"It's alright, she won't bite." Another voice said, startled Kowalski jerked her head up to see a blonde girl with glasses had appeared in front of her. The girl gave a small smile and making weird hand-gestures said. "I'm Daisy." She then paused and looked expectantly at the black-haired girl who didn't know what to say. Looking a little nervous Daisy gave a small smile. "You're not deaf are you?"

Then it clicked. "Oh deaf, that's why you were making all those weird hand-gestures." Kowalski said, without thinking.

Daisy frowned. "It's not 'weird hand-gestures' its British Sign Language you eejit." And with that she stalked off.

Feeling as if she'd been slapped in the face, Kowalski frowned. "Well, I didn't know. I'm not deaf. Sorry!" She yelled after the blonde's retreating back. Not surprisingly she didn't turn around.

Katie however clapped her hands over her ears. "Do you mind?"

"Hi." A slightly strained voice said, looking up Kowalski was met with the face of the guy from McDonalds. He scratched the back of his neck, clearly at a loss of what to do. "I'm Charlie. Charlie Small."

Kowalski snorted a little at that. "Small? You're not small. You're massive." He was too.

Charlie ran his hand through his brown hair and then said. "Okay, bye." He then turned and lolloped off.

"Charlie!" The minute Charlie wasn't taking up all of her vision Kowalski could see a boy with brown hair in a wheelchair. Rolling his eyes a little he came towards her. "Sorry about him. He has the social graces of a plank. I'm Dave, Art genius. You need anything drawing, painting, sculpting, whatever I'm your man."

"Okay thanks…" Kowalski was about to say something when in the background she heard faint footsteps that came closer and closer until…

"Whew! I'm here. Traffic was a nightmare. We were stuck in traffic half an hour." A small, black guy said, casually throwing himself through the door. "I told mum we should have walked, we would have got here in more time. Are you new?" He addressed the last question to Kowalski, who simply blinked. This guy seemed to be a little like a firecracker, about to burst with energy.

"Are you new?" He asked again. Getting no response he turned round to Katie, who had stepped back a little when he came bowling in through the door. "Is she mute?"

That shook Kowalski to her senses. "No, I-I'm not mute…I'm Kowalski. Nice to meet you…" She extended a hand which was eagerly grabbed and pumped up and down.

"Nice ta meet you, 'walski! I'm Javier. Javier Uppel. Performing arts extraordinaire. You name it, I can do it, act, sing, dance, the works. What's your…"

"Science." Kowalski finished, anticipating the question.

"Science eh? That's cool. I can't do that. Never could get my head round it. But James, he's good at science."

"Someone mention my name? Javier you nearly bowled me over when you ran past me just then." Another boy appeared who had blonde curly hair.

"Sorry 'bout that James, but I had to get here on time. Didn't want maple-syrup yelling at me for being late. This is Kowalski; she's a science genius to, just like you."

"I doubt anyone is 'just like me'." James said curtly, as he looked the girl over. "And she can't be a science genius, that's what I am."

"What so there can't be two of the same thing?" Kowalski asked, not liking his attitude.

"No." James said, simply, going to his seat.

'Well he seems like a ray of sunshine.' Kowalski thought sarcastically as she took the only available seat left.

**Kowalski's reactions to Rhiannon and Daisy are not meant to cause offence. I have only met one person who is blind in my life and Kowalski's reaction was based on how I remember feeling when I met her. **

**With Daisy's one like any language if you don't know it BSL can seem a bit like 'What are they doing?' at first. One of the people I work with [staff not client] started casually signing in conversation, I had no idea what he was on about and generally thought he was just making weird hand-gestures. I even asked him "Why are you making the hand-gestures?" I felt dead embarrassed when he told me he was actually signing. **


	6. More about ST Nicholas

**I'm back. Thank you for the positive reviews, I'm glad to see that you seem to like my oc's! After this chapter the Madagascar lot will start appearing again.**

**See chapter 1 for the disclaimer.**

It turned out that the 'Maple-syrup' person Javier reffered to was actually the teacher, Mrs Maple. And Kowalski could definitely see where she got the nick-name from. She had this way of speaking to you in such a sugary sweet way it made you cringe. And she constantly talked to them like idiots. This had been her opening speech; picture it in a high-pitched voice.

"Hello again class. Nice to see you all again, did you all have a good holiday?"

General murmurs of agreement.

"Well, that's nice isn't it? Now, we have a new class member, Kowalski Jones. Would you like to come to the front, Kowalski?"

Kowalski scrunched her nose up at that. "Not really…"

"Okay that's fine. Right, here's your new time-tables, put them at the front of your planner."

"Miss we need the planners." Daisy said, bluntly.

The teacher laughed in an annoying manner. "Of course you do! Silly me…" She rummaged around in a bag while Kowalski shot Katie a 'Are you joking' look. Katie frowned, not understanding it.

Kowalski rolled her eyes and accepted the planner Maple-syrup carefully put in front of her. After that the young genius blocked her out for the rest of registration. Not that it was difficult; if she could ignore Alex she could ignore anyone.

After that Kowalski had class. It turned out that at Saint Nick, due to the fact that everyone was doing different things there wasn't actually a lesson plan. The teachers changed per lesson but you usually did the stuff that related to your own course. For Kowalski that meant she was working on a mix of Chemistry and Biology A-levels.

Rhiannon worked, using braille. At first Kowalski had thought it was a blank sheet of paper, until she saw Rhiannon running her fingers across it and got the picture. After that Rhiannon typed something onto something that looked a little like a Nintendo.

"What's that?" Kowalski said, as she tapped James, who was sitting in front of her, on the shoulder.

"What's what?" He said, clearly not interested.

She ignored the tone and carried on. "The thing Rhiannon's using. And why is she allowed head-phones when we're not?"

"That thing is a braille n speak. Rhiannon types into it using braille and then the thing repeats back what she's typed, that's why she's using head-phones. So she doesn't disturb us."

Kowalski nodded and went back to work.

Just before lunch she saw Dave do a brilliant piece of artwork. "Whoa." She said, coming over to look at it.

Dave looked at the artwork critically and said. "Yeah I know. Usually I'm better, but it's the beginning of the school year, so I'm a little rusty." Yes, he seriously said that.

After lunch she discovered English was Daisy's talent. She'd got up to sharpen a pencil and as she walked past she saw Daisy doing work that looked quite complicated. "What're you doing?" She asked. Not getting any reply Kowalski tapped the blonde on the shoulder and repeated her question. After writing it down on the note-book Daisy carried around with her the girl finally answered.

"I'm working to get my Law degree." Daisy explained.

"Are you serious? You're going to be a lawyer?" Kowalski scribbled it down.

"Yes. "

"Doesn't that take like, four years? And for you to be like, really good at English?"

"It does. I'm an English genius and I'm already 2 years through. I passed my GCSE's when I was 14."

Having nothing to say to that Kowalski went back to her seat.

Charlie it turned out was a PE genius. "What do you mean a PE genius?" Kowalski asked him when she heard.

"It means I'm very sporty."

"Well, no duh. What do you do?"

"I do everything, I swim, I play badminton, tennis, squash, rounder's, hockey, basketball, rugby, football and even a little bit of croquet."

Impressed, she said. "Wow. Skipper would love you."

"Who's Skipper?" Javier asked.

"My brother. I have three, Skipper and Rico are my twin brothers, we're triplets. Then Private is my younger brother, he's 15."

"Cool. I have a brother and a sister. Amajit, he's 18 and Missy who's 14. They're in the foreigners group."

"The foreigners?"

"Yeah, we have nick-names for each of the four groups. We're known as the genius's. Then there are the foreigners, the exceptions and the young 'uns. The young 'uns are the primary school kids, 6 -11. The rest of us are split depending on our needs. The exceptions are 20 and 21 year old. There's 5 of them, all girls, and there all on the autistic spectrum. That's one class that won't ever be getting any new members; those girls really don't like new people in their class. Katie and Rayne are in that class, they're our head girls."

"Head girls?"

"Yeah, each house has two heads. Ours are Katie Britches and Rayne Adjewa's. South house have Benjamin Tollin and Harvey Shud. East house have Benjamin Littlewood and Lozie Nikolay. West house have Nicholas and Nicole Nickintin."

Kowalski stared for a moment and then said to Katie. "You couldn't make this up could you?"

"Of course not, it's life." Katie said, seriously.

The rest of the day went by in a bit of a blur. It seemed a bit unreal to Kowalski. Like she was in a dream.


	7. Girly talk fail

I'm back! Wish me luck, the reason I haven't been updating is because I've been studying for an exam which I have tomorrow – nightmare! So this chapter is serving as a bit of a stress-releaser.

See chapter 1 for the disclaimer.

"There she is! How was school?" Private smiled as Kowalski staggered into the living room. She'd just been picked up by John and was still suffering the effects of having Marty and Alex arguing in her ear-hole the whole way home. Private was lucky, Skipper and Rico walked him home, she used to walk him home as well, before she moved that is.

"Interesting." Was Kowalski's considered reply as she threw herself in the currently-vacant-arm-chair. "My classmates are all nuts."

"Why's that?" Skipper asked, putting the paper down; next to him Rico put the telly on mute.

"There's a girl called Katie who's a martial-arts expert. A blind girl called Rhiannon who's a maths expert, another girl called Daisy, who's deaf and clearly hates my guts 'cause I failed to identify British Sign Language. There's also a firecracker called Javier who's a performing expert, a guy called James who seems to have decided he isn't going to talk to me unless I ask him something, a ridiculously talented artist called Dave who's in a wheelchair, and seems the only sane one of the lot. And finally guess who else is in my class?"

"No idea." Skipper said, knowing that the more he played along the shorter her story would be.

"The guy from McDonalds." Rico started chocking on the water he happened to be drinking at that moment and as Private slapped him on the back Skipper stared at his sister.

"You're kidding."

"No. His name's Charlie Small, yeah I know, ironic right? And he's a P.E. expert which basically means he can do any form of sports. So that's my class in a nutshell. All nuts."

Skipper was about to reply when Alex came in through the door saying in an unnecessarily-loud voice. "And THIS is the living room. And these are the Jones's." All four of said Jones's stared at him, finally believing him to have lost his marbles.

Then Marty followed holding a camera and it started to make a bit more sense. "Smile and wave guys."

"No." Skipper said bluntly, picking up the paper again as Rico un-muted the telly and turned it up a bit for good measure.

"Oh c'mon! I need practice if I'm gonna be the greatest film director that ever lived! That's why I'm filming Alex."

"You're filming Alex?" Private repeated, elbowing Rico in the side and gesturing for him to turn the TV down.

"Yeah! I'm gonna film him for a year, and I'm putting it on-line so people can follow it. We're gonna be an over-night sensation!" He high fived Alex excitedly.

"Highly unlikely." Kowalski said, crushingly. "Only one in a billion people get turned into an over-night sensation. "

"See, there's a chance! And anyway, it doesn't matter if we don't get turned into an over-night sensation; you never know he watches these things! We could be spotted!"

"Not going to happen."

"Oh c'mon Kowalski, we can dream can't we? Anyway, we're going to film the rest of the house, see ya!" Five minutes later Alice was screaming at them to get out the kitchen and let her cook.

Gloria and Melman came back a little later due to college and were subsequently filled in on everyone's day over dinner. The minute Kowalski mentioned her classmates Gloria started smiling an irritating smile.

By bedtime Kowalski was ready to punch her in the face. "Would you stop grinning at me like a demented clown!?"

"So…Any cute guys in your class?" Gloria asked, unfazed by Kowalski's less-than-polite tone.

"Seriously?"

"C'mon! None of the boys are around; we can have a girly talk!"

"NO! It might have escaped your notice, Gloria, but I am a tomboy, tomboys do not have 'girly talks'."

"What about James?"

"What ABOUT James?"

"He seems nice."

Kowalski stared at her as if she'd grown two heads. "NICE!? Are we talking about the same guy here? I'm talking about the one who's only spoken about two lines to me; I don't think he's planning to propose or anything."

Gloria gave an exasperated sigh. "Kowalski, he's probably can't bring himself to say anything because he's so smitten."

"Er no." Kowalski got into bed. "He's not talking to me because he's a walking ego who can't bring himself to admit he's got some competition. I'll show him. I'm a genius!"

"And when you do, you'll fall in love…"

"Gloria! This is life, not a sappy romantic film, not a sappy romantic book, and it's sure as hell not a Mary-sue fanfic! James hates me. Get used to it." And with that she plunged the room into darkness.


	8. To thin? Are you kidding me?

**I know I only updated this yesterday, but I've had the scene below in my head for the last couple of days and had to write it. The reason I didn't write it yesterday is because I specifically stated the Madagascar lot where to be in the next chapter.**

**The plan for the rest of this fic is that it takes place in weeks. I.e. week 1, something happens, week 2 something happens. Mainly because it's boring writing per day. The only exception [so far] is the previous chapters from the introduction of the Saint Nick lot because that takes place over 1 day. The below scene takes place at the end of Kowalski's first week. **

**Thank you to all my reviewers.**

**See chapter 1 for disclaimer.**

"I've said it before and I'll say it again. They. Are. Nuts." Kowalski announced, flinging her door open and flopping down on her bed.

"Is this about your classmates again?" Gloria asked, putting her magazine down and preparing herself. She was beginning to like hearing about Kowalski's classmates they sounded…interesting.

"Yep. I've already told the boys and they're just like 'Is she fat?' and I'm like, no…"

"Wait, what? Kowalski, start at the beginning."

Kowalski rolled her eyes, sat up and said. "Okay, here we go. It was lunchtime right…"

_Friday lunchtime._

_I was walking with Katie to our normal table, and the first thing that struck me was that the guys weren't there. So I asked "Where are the boys?"_

"_At various clubs." Rhiannon said. "Javier has his dancing lesson, Dave has his art and Charlie goes with him…"_

"_Are those two fused together or something?" I said. _

"_Of course not, the only reason Charlie goes is because Dave thinks it's a good idea for him to 'paint out his aggression'." Rhiannon said, digging into the pile of slime the cafeteria calls food._

"_It's not working." Katie said immediately plonking herself next to me. "You didn't see it, but he turned one of the chairs over in after-school club because he couldn't do the work. He gets very frustrated."_

"_That's an understatement. Anyway, James's at science club."_

Naturally I got excited at that_. "Science club? You have a science club? How come it's been a week and no one told me?" _

_Rhiannon raised an eyebrow at that. _You know for someone who can't see she's really good at body-gestures. _"We thought you knew. It was in the leaflet you were supposed to get when you started."_

"Is that the one you threw in the bin?" Gloria asked, smirking a little.

"Yes. Shut up. Anyway…"

_Then Katie leans over and goes. "Can I have your pudding?" _Naturally I gave it to her; though god knows why she wanted it. Personally I think her taste buds are non-existent. But then she said this.

"_I want to fatten up a bit." _This coming from a girl who's as thin as me.

"_Seriously!?" I said._

"_Yeah, I'm all skin and bone. I need more meat on me, and then I won't be so cold all the time." _She's got a point there, Katie wore a coat in class on Wednesday because she said it was 'freezing'; the rest of us were dressed normally, by the way.

"So that's it." Kowalski finished.

"That's so weird." Gloria said after a couple of minute's silence.

"I know! I've heard of people complaining they're too fat, but never to thin!"

"Neither have i. God that's weird. She can have my weight if she wants. I'll gladly give it to her, she's as thin as you, you say? Yeah, I'll defiantely give it to her."

Kowalski gave a nod of agreement, leaned back and was about to go to sleep when there was a knock at the door. "Kowalski?" Private's voice said. "We're going to watch a documentary. You coming?"

"Who's 'we'?"

"Me, Rico, Skipper and hopefully, you."

"What's it about?"

"It's a documentary. Nature probably." Gloria said, from behind the safety of her magazine.

Kowalski shot her a look as Private said. "Penguins. How they survive in the artic. It sounds interesting, you in?"

"I'm in." Kowalski opened the door and smiled at her younger brother. They all had a fondness for penguins. "It sounds cool. Geddit? Cool?"

Private stared at her as in the background Gloria groaned. "Your jokes aren't funny, Kowalski."

"Oh, c'mon! That was a classic!"

"Classic mistake, yes."

"Like you could do better."

"_Alice_ could probably do better."

"Ow, that hurt."

In the living room Skipper and Rico had clearly raided the cupboards and everything they weren't supposed to eat was on the table in bowls. "You dragged her out of her cave then?" Skipper said as Private and Kowalski entered.

"Shut up." Kowalski squashed herself in between Skipper and Rico as Private sat at Skippers feet. "Play it then."

Rico gave a smile and hit play.


	9. Get lost, Alex

**Okay, this is a continuation of the previous chapter. Thank you to Erin Milne for your suggestion, which I have adapted to suit the plot. **

**See chapter 1 for the disclaimer.**

They had barely got ten minutes into the documentary when Alex could be heard in the hall-way.

"C'mon, Melman! Just smile for the camera!"

"No."

"C'mon! Just one teeny little smile?"

"No."

A pause and then. "Hey Melman, I'm thinking of a song…"

"No, Alex! I've got homework, leave me alone. And turn that thing off!"

"Someone's in a bad mood." Private sing-songed, stretching his feet out as in the background they heard Marty protesting.

"Must have had a hard day at college." Skipper said, staring at the baby penguin hatching on-screen.

Melman was studying to be a doctor. It was hard work, from the sounds of it, although to be honest only Kowalski understood it. She and Melman often talked nerd at the dinner-table. Skipper shook his head trying to erase the memory of the two of them discussing the best way to preserve a body over burger and chips.

He was interrupted from his thoughts by Alex walking in, Marty behind him still holding that blasted camera, saying. "Hey guys, can you sort of clear out for a minute?"

"Why?" Skipper asked coolly, shooting Alex a steely glare.

"Because I need to practice. My teacher taught me these really cool moves that we're performing for the Christmas concert and I wanna practice them."

"Do it upstairs then." Rico said rudely. "We're watching a documentary. And you're making us miss the best part!"

Immediately Kowalski, who had been following the conversation turned her head to the screen and then immediately covered her eyes. "Einstein's boxers! Rico, how is a penguin getting eaten by a killer whale the best part!?"

"It's cool." Rico drooled, watching the screen with unnerving fascination.

"Is that thing on?" Private asked Marty.

"Nope. I'm gonna turn it on when Alex starts dancing."

"You'll be waiting a while then. This doesn't end for another fifty minutes." Skipper said, attention firmly on the mass murder happening on-screen.

"I'll do my dancing, and then you guys can watch it again." Alex offered.

"Or you can clear of and I don't get Rico to break your face. How's that?" Skipper snapped, now at the end of his tether. Rico leaned forward and smiled at Alex in a creepy deranged fashion, the dancer got the hint and turning to the door said.

"Alright, alright. I'll leave you to your little nature party. Your loss, you won't be able to see a true genius at work." Five seconds later and they heard him fall over something.

"Karma." Private said, smirking.

"Oh damn! Alex I missed that! Would yo mind doing it again when I turn the camera on?" Marty asked, grinning from ear-to-ear.

"No! You are not videoing me looking like an idiot!"

"But I thought you wanted all your glory recorded? That was comedy gold! Oh, you could be on 'You've been framed' and get £250!" Marty left the room and thankfully their voices faded as they went upstairs.

Rico turned back to the screen and frowned at the now-calm scene. "Ah missed it…" He went to rewind the video when all of his sibling yelled.

"NO!"


	10. Science club

**Hey, Roxy Goth here with the next chapter! This one takes place in Saint Nick. The next couple of chapters after this will focus on the Madagascar lot again. **

**Thank you to everyone who has reviewed so far.**

**See chapter 1 for the disclaimer.**

Kowalski went into school with a vow; she was going to get into science club. She didn't know how but it was going to happen. As Skipper often said. "You can't sit around waiting for stuff to come to you; sometimes you have to go get it."

So, with that in mind she asked Katie. "How do you sign up for science club?"

Katie looked temperedly startled, before regaining herself and saying, helpfully. "I have no idea."

"You must have some idea."

"No really, I don't. It's never been of interest to me, try James, he's a member."

Kowalski looked over at James's lone form. "Er. No thanks…"

"Why?"

"Er, because he hates me?"

"He doesn't hate you, look I had this problem myself, I was new at the beginning of year 7 and this class had already been established during the young 'uns **[Primary school ages 6 – 11] **he took a while to warm up to me as well, but we got there. It's just because you're new, it takes him a while to adjust. But back to the original question, I haven't a clue; no one else will have a clue, ask James."

So with a sign Kowalski dragged herself over to James. "Hey."

He looked up from the equation he was working out. "What do you want?"

"Oh charming. I just wanna know how to sign up to science club."

"You're joining science club?"

"I plan to, that's why I'm asking." It's like talking to Marty she thought.

James looked at her for a minute before shrugging. "Okay, sure I'll take you to the staffroom; you can ask Mr Edwards, he's the one running the club."

Kowalski was a little surprised at that, she thought it would be a lot harder. "Okay…You'll take me at lunch?"

"Yes."

"Okay then."

Sure enough the minuet the bell rang James took her to the staffroom and then left. 'I suppose he did say he'd take me to the staffroom.' Kowalski thought, observing the sign that said 'Do not knock unless it is an emergency'. So she waited until Maple-syrup came to the door.

"Oh, hello Kowalski. Who are you waiting for?"

"Mr Edwards."

"Okay then, dear, give me a sec."

'Don't call me dear.' Kowalski thought as the door swung shut. Five seconds later and a bearded man, who introduced himself as 'Mr Edwards' explained to her that she had to attend a taster session to decide whether she liked the club before signing up for a term, or in her case half a term. This taster session would take place on the day before half-term. Naturally of course Kowalski was planning to accept, there was no way she was missing out on anything to do with science.

She'd told her brothers when she got home, who had apparently made bets on when she would find a science club to join, which had led to a lot of grumbling from the older two when a smug Private collected his winnings of £20.

For the rest of the time until half-term nothing much really happened. James still ignored her, Daisy had warmed up to her a bit, but was still frosty, Rhiannon was cool, the two of them had bonded when she showed Kowalski how to do a particularly hard formula, Javier decided it was appropriate to burst into song during maths, more specifically 'Break your heart' by Taio Cruz. Charlie still seemed to be a bit on edge around her, she'd managed to have a good couple ofconversation with Dave though, turned oht he was a fan of 'The big bang theory' so they'd talked about that.. She and Katie had become fast friends, with Katie respecting Kowalski's brains and Kowalski respecting Katie's ability to throw anyone she didn't like to the floor.

Then it was the day before half-term and as soon as the bell rang for lunch Kowalski sprinted to the science labs. "Ah, Kowalski you're early." Mr Edwards remarked, upon seeing her at the door.

"Yeah, I know, but I just couldn't wait to get here! So, what do we do?"

"Well, you'll actually be in the Physics lab, you just work on whatever you want really, science homework, formulas that you want to work out, that kind of thing."

Kowalski nodded and eagerly turned into the Physics lab, already thinking of the wonderful things she could create there when she saw a sight that made her stop dead. James. Sitting at a desk flicking through a book. He looked up and stared at her.

"Hi." The black-haired girl said, in a sort of strangled voice. Great, trust her to be in a room with the guy that hates her.

"Hey."

Without saying a word Kowalski took a seat on the bench in front of him and started doing research into the effect that acid had on the body.

A stony half-hour passed with no sound except the pages being turned. Well, at least not until James came up to her and said, over her shoulder. "Why are you reading about that?"

She jumped a bit, having not noticed him and explained. "It's interesting. And I need to know this kind of stuff if I want to be a forensic scientist."

"You want to be a forensic scientist? I want to be a film director."

Kowalski scrunched her nose up a little, turning to look at him. "I thought you were a science genius?"

"I am. But I'm not interested in it, well I am, but I don't want to turn it into a career, if that makes sense."

"You have a gift for science, but you don't actually want to have a career in science? Why?"

"Dunno really. Mind if I sit next to you?"

"Sure." They spent the rest of the session in comfortable silence.


	11. Gloria's new boyfriend

**Hey! I'm back. I hope you all had a great valentine's day. **

**Thanks to all those who have reviewed.**

**See chapter 1 for disclaimer.**

"You mean he actually sat next to you? Of his own accord?"

"No, I held a gun to his head. Of course he came of his own accord." Kowalski said sounding sarcastic, but the glint in her eye gave her real feelings away. She was happy. And okay, maybe she was starting to develop a little bit of a crush on a James. Not that it was any big deal; she'd had crushes before that had always petered out.

"Eeekkk!" Gloria squeaked, throwing herself backwards onto her bed. "It's like Romeo and Juliet!"

Kowalski crinkled her nose. "I hope not. They died."

"You know what I mean! It's romantic, okay? I know that you're not used to romance being such a tomboy, but it seems you're getting the idea…oh, we can double date!"

"Yeah right." Kowalski said, absentmindedly pulling on a black and white top – much more her style. Then Gloria's words sunk in and she turned to look at the grinning girl. "Double date? Wait – you have a boyfriend? Or – or a girlfriend – I don't care."

"Shut up 'walski, you know I don't swing that way. I'm not like you."

"Hey! Two things, first of all, I'm not a les – I'm bi. Secondly…I don't have a second point."

"Whatevs. Let's get downstairs."

About halfway through breakfast Alex decided to join them. "Holla! What up peeps! 3 days 'till my b-day!"

"Ah, yes I wanted to talk about that…" Alice began.

"Oohh, conversations about me, I like it." Alex grinned taking a seat.

"Dude you are seriously behaving like Kuzco now." Marty said.

"What!? No I'm not."

"Yeah you are, quote 'it's all about me.'"

"I am not acting like Kuzco."

"You are!"

"Not!"

"Are!"

"Not!"

"A-"

"Okay, that's enough!" Alice yelled. When she had everyone's attention she took a deep breath and continued. "I thought we'd go into town on Wednesday. See a movie."

"What movie?" Skipper immediately wanted to know.

"Whatever Alex decides." John said, pouring a glass of juice.

"Oh great, so it'll be something like glee or high school musical, then."

"Not necessarily Skipper. I'll have a look through the 'what's on' guide and see."

The rest of breakfast passed in relative silence, with just the minutest bit of arguing until Kowalski said. "Oh yeah, I forgot to ask, Gloria, who are you dating?"

"Dating!?" Melman spat his breakfast out.

"Eew, gross." Marty whined.

"First of all, thanks Kowalski. Second of all, thank you Melman, I'm not that gross you know. Boys are into me." Gloria said, glaring at the doctor-in-training.

"What's his name?" Skipper said, immediately. "We can check him out for you. Do a bit of surveillance."

"You are not my spying on my boyfriend!" Gloria snapped, tuning red. "And his name is Moto-Moto."

"Sounds like one of Will. 's aliases." Private remarked.

"And this is why I wasn't going to tell you…"

"Why don't you bring him round?" Alice suggested, trying and failing to look like she wasn't interested.

"Bring him here? Are you kidding?"

"It would be nice. You could bring him round next Saturday. We're all in then." John said.

"Not everyone, Melman's going out."

"No I'm not." Melman said, quickly. Then realising the weird looks he was getting he backtracked. "I mean, I was. I was going to the library, but I can do that Sunday. No, I want to meet your new…boyfriend."

Gloria looked at him for a couple of beats before sighing. "Fine. But, all of you try to be normal okay? I don't want him thinking I'm a complete freak…"

"Hey, look, I can do the spoon trick!" Marty grinned, balancing a spoon on the end of his nose.

"Yeah, you're doomed." Private said, helpfully as Gloria smacked her hands against her head.


	12. Alex's birthday dance of

**Hey, again. Roxy Goth here hoping you are having a good holiday. This chapter focus's a bit more on Alex (though you probabky guessed that) and Marty. You will see why in future chapters. **

**See chapter 1 for disclaimer.**

"Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, you look like a monkey…and you smell like one to!" Everyone warbled as Alex sat in the middle of the room smiling widely.

"Thanks guys! Hey, can I open my presents now?"

"Just let me get my camera." Marty quickly got up and found it. "Okay…action!"

"Seriously? Who's watching this stuff?" Skipper asked, eyebrows raised.

"Two things, first this won't be uploaded. Second he's had a couple of views."

"Yeah, but how many's a couple?" Kowalski said. "Two isn't it?"

Marty shot her a look. "The least amount of views is 15 and the most is 39. But not to worry! This is only practice, I was trying them out on various different sites and I've decided the best is definitely you tube. That's where people get found. Now all we have to do is wait for something spectacular to come along."

"Like me opening my pressies, Marty – camera."

After Alex had finished opening them and had his special birthday breakfast [pancakes] they went into town.

"And no climbing out of the window or running of this time." John warned the Jones's as he watched them get on the mini-bus. "You almost gave us a heart attack last time."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever." Private said airily, which made John turn a funny shade of purple.

Thankfully the trip there passed without anyone dying. When they got there Alex led the rest of the group through the sea of shoppers. "This way."

"Erm, Alex? The cinema's back there." Kowalski said, pointing back to where they came from.

"Yeah I know, but I couldn't find anything I liked. So instead I thought we'd see the street show."

"The what show?" Rico squawked.

"No, the street show. Street performers of all sorts are gathering today for one day only! It's a dream come true!"

Skipper opened his mouth to say a cutting remark but Private smacked him lightly on the arm. "Let it go, skipper. It's his birthday."

Skipper grumbled a bit but didn't say anything.

The street performers were actually pretty good. And then the leader of the show stepped forward after doing an amazing bit of dancing and said. "And now I issue a challenge. Anyone who thinks they can beat me in a dance of – come forward and let yourself be known."

"Rigged." Kowalski said immediately.

"Yeah…" Rico agreed. But Marty obviously didn't agree and leapt up and down like a kangaroo while yelling.

"PICK ALEX! PICK ALEX! IT'S HIS BRTHDAY! PICK ALEX!"

"Marty!" Gloria grabbed him by the neck and hissed in his ear. "Don't you know these things are rigged?"

"Worth a shot though. OVER HERE! PICK ALEX! ALEX! "

Some young children in front picked up on Marty yelling [although to be fair the whole street did as well] and joined in. "PICK ALEX!" within a couple of minutes there was a steady chant of.

"ALEX, ALEX, ALEX!" The poor leader looked confused as he ran over to some of his friends and started whispering hurriedly after a bit more head-nodding he stepped forward and held his hand up.

"Alright! I will pick…Alex. Reveal yourself!"

Alex, now grinning like a mad-man rushed into the centre of the circle while Marty fished his camera out his bag. "I though you left that thing at home?" Melman said, upon seeing it.

"C'mon Melman! You never know when genius will strike!"

What happened next was a dance of to 'Moves like Jagger' with everyone in the audience clapping along and Marty standing on a handy table filming the whole thing. As mentioned the ringmaster was really good, and Alex nearly beat him – but the ringmaster did a backwards flip and then it was all over. Alex lost.

"I got it!" Marty yelled, slinging an arm around Alex the minute he got close enough. "That was brilliant! He was all like this" Cue Marty's attempt at dancing. "And then you were all like, nu-uh cause I can do this!" Cue worse dancing. [If that was possible]

"I get the picture, Marty." Alex sighed.

"I'm putting this up when we get back."

"Oh great. Broadcast my shame to the entire world, why don't you?"

"You were good!" Private chirped. "Really! I couldn't do that, none of guys could. Right guys?"

"Yeah!" Kowalski agreed. "I mean have you seen me dancing?" She then burst into…moves, not quite dance moves…but moves.

After five seconds Rico put his hands on her shoulders to stop her. "No. People are staring. Stop."

"Let's go back then. Pizza for tea, tonight, yeah?" John said causing whooping and cheering.


	13. Choose your weapon

**Hey! Sorry for the delay, but first of all I was away, then my laptop broke. But it's fixed now, so on with the story.**

**This chapter is with the Madagascar lot, but the St Nicholas gang will be back next chapter.**

**See chapter 1 for the disclaimer.**

"I hate this." Skipper grumbled, as he snatched a plate. Him and his sibling were on washing up duty, they worked in pairs, and today was him ad Private, but usually Kowalski and Rico just stayed in the room until they were done. Sometimes, if they could be bothered, they helped. Today wasn't one of those days.

"Never mind Skipper, the sooner we do it, the sooner we get to go." Private said, brightly, arms covered in suds.

"I know, it's just…annoying especially when you consider everything else we could be doing…"

It was at that minute they heard the front door and Gloria's voice. "Yeah, so this is the hallway, just shove your coat at the bottom of the banister, it doesn't matter."

"Who's that?" Rico said, pausing from reading a textbook.

Kowalski scrunched her nose up trying to remember and then banged the table. "Gloria's boyfriend!"

"What?" Skipper turned from the stack of plates to look at her. "What boyfriend?"

"Mojo-Mojo. Remember, she said she was bringing him round today? That must be them, I'm going."

"Me to." Rico closed the book and followed her out.

"Whoa, wait for me!" Skipper called hurrying after them, Private at his heels; this was much more interesting than dirty dishes.

Gloria had already taken Moto into the living room and introduced him to Alex and Marty.

"Hi." Kowalski grinned, giving Moto-Moto the once over.

"Hi." He said, twiddling his hands a little. Skipper joined his sister and also looked him over. He looked alright really, black with black hair which was clearly gelled, he had quite a good-looking face and Skipper could clearly see he did a lot of working out.

"So you're Gloria's boyfriend? Mojo-Mojo right?" Kowalski said.

Moto frowned a little and corrected her. "It's, er, Moto-moto, to-not jo." Next to him Gloria sank her head into her hands. This was going to be a long time.

"Is this your boyfriend?" Melman asked, edging his way around the Jones's. "I'm Melman, nice to meet you." He extended a hand.

Moto shook it. "Moto-Moto."

"Er, Skipper and Private, there is a pile of unwashed dishes in the kitchen, mind attending to them?" Alice appeared at the door. "Is this Moto?" She asked catching sight of the nervous boy.

"Er, actually it's Moto-Moto miss."

"So Moto…" Alice settled herself down and as the Jones's left to go back to the joy of washing up they could hear her starting the interview.

"Poor guy." Rico said, sympathetically as he closed the door.

"We need to get her back." Skipper said, sitting at the table. Private raised an eyebrow.

"Is it just me washing up hen?" He asked out loud, getting no reply he sighed. "Charming."

"I'll help." Kowalski offered taking up Skippers place.

There were a few minutes of silence until Skipper banged the table. "I've got it!" Making Kowalski nearly drop the plate she was drying.

"What a death wish?" She snarked. "If we break any of these plates Alice will kill us, dig us up and then kill us again."

"Nah nah, the way to get her back, a flour bomb!"

"A flour bomb?" Rico echoed, looking up from his book. "That's a bit old school, isn't it?"

"Which is why it's perfect! She'll never see it coming! Let's get to it men!"

Alice left the living room with Moto-Moto, still asking him about his life.

Gloria was staring after her incredulously. "I don't believe it. Alice has stolen my boyfriend!"

"Nah she hasn't." Melman said quietly.

"Yeah she has! She's literally just walked out with him!"

"Gloria, you're overreacting…" Melman was going to continue when a manly scream came from the foyer. He, Gloria, Marty and Alex all shared a look before running to find out what had happened.

Gloria stopped dead, this was not good. Her boyfriend was covered in flour; Alice had splatters on flour on her and was currently shrieking skywards. "I CAN'T BELIVE YOU!" Gloria followed Alice's pointing finger to see the four Jones's watching. Well, Skipper was watching, the rest of them were falling about laughing.

"YOU THINK THIS IS FUNNY, DO YOU?" Alice continued. "YOU'RE ALL GROUDED!"

Gloria mentally rolled her eyes, she never got why Alice bothered grounding those four. All it meant was that they could come up with bigger and better plans to annoy everyone.

"Moto, I'm so sorry…" She said, laying a hand on his shoulder and glaring up at Skipper, who only smirked back.

"I need a shower." He said through gritted teeth. "Can I have a shower?"

Alice blinked a bit and then got her act together. "Of course, upstairs first on the left. And I want you lot to apologise." She yelled at the four in black.

"Sorry Mojo." Skipper said, ignoring the scowl from the other guy. "It was meant for Alice. Just a bit of bad timing on your part, really."

"It's Moto-Moto."

"I'll call you what I want." Skipper said firmly, earning a hard glare from both Moto and Gloria.

Of course the four of them had to endure a lecture from John as well as Alice, but really for the look on Moto's face it was so worth it.


	14. How not to apologise

**Hey, I'm back. Thank you to all those who have reviewed so far, I'm so glad you seem to think my writing is humorous. I do try.**

**See chapter 1 for the disclaimer.**

"Welcome back!" Maple-Syrup practically sang as she entered the classroom. General murmurs of 'Hi miss' floated to her ears. "I have good news!" She said, throwing herself behind her desk.

"You're leaving?" Kowalski heard Katie mutter.

Maple-Syrup however, thankfully, didn't hear the karate kid and carried on. "The competition is starting again!" Suddenly the other members of the class looked animated, even Charlie who had been staring out the window.

"What competition?" Kowalski asked.

"Has no one told you? The singing competition, every year this school does one of two things, we either put on a play or we put on a singing competition. As it was a play last year it's a singing competition this year." Maple-Syrup explained.

Kowalski scrunched her nose up. "That seems a bit unfair. What if you can't sing? Or are mute?" Or deaf, she thought, thinking of Daisy.

"It's music therapy." Katie explained, under her breath, as the teacher turned to write on the board. "The idea is that it develops a sense of self awareness. Look deep into ourselves, that kind of thing."

"But what if you can't sing?" Kowalski pressed.

"Most people like singing, even if they're no good at it. Even Daisy enjoys it."

"How does she sing though? She's deaf, isn't she?"

"She went deaf, she wasn't born deaf. So she still remembers sound, how do you think she learned to talk? She went deaf when she was six. I mean, okay she's not the greatest singer in the world, but she can do it. She has the lyrics and does it in a sort of karaoke style." Katie patiently explained.

"Okay…" Kowalski said, still a little dubious.

"Alright!" Maple-Syrup turned back to her class, who were struggling to keep their eyes open. "So, the competition takes place over four weeks. One song per week, starting next week. Then after that the two winners from each class perform again, four songs over four weeks. Then the houses compete, four songs over four weeks."

"So, it takes about three months?" Kowalski said, mentally calculating.

"Give or take a little." Katie grinned.

At lunchtime Dave cornered her. "What's up?" Kowalski said, a little taken aback. She and Dave had talked a few times and although it seemed like they might be on the path of friendship this was new and defiantly unexpected, even more so considering Charlie wasn't with him.

Wringing his hands Dave sighed. "Look, I wanted to talk to you about Charlie."

Kowalski nodded, still a bit unsure of where this was heading. She and Charlie really hadn't spoken since she started; even when she was talking to Dave he usually hung back.

"I talked to him…and he admits he flew of the handle a bit, you know, at McDonalds?"

Kowalski snorted at that and leaned back against the wall. "A bit? I thought he was going to explode like one of Rico's firecrackers."

"Yeah well…he wants me to tell you he's sorry."

Kowalski frowned and glared at the artist. "Why's he got you to do it? Is he not man enough to tell me himself?"

"He finds it difficult. He knows he's got to apologise but doesn't really know how…"

"Yeah, if you don't mind me saying, Dave, this sounds a bit sugar honey iced tea, if you know what I mean."

Now it was Dave's turn to frown. "What?"

"Spell the first letters of each word."

Dave paused thinking about it for a couple of seconds, before his face cleared. "Oh…oh! Okay…do you know everyone's disability yet?"

Kowalski paused, momently thrown by the swift change in subject. "Er…no…well, I know a couple. You're in a wheelchair, obviously, Rhiannon's blind, Daisy's deaf. That's all I've got so far. "

"Okay." Dave said calmly, as if talking about the weather. "Well, Javier's ADHD, that's Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder…"

"Whoa, whoa!" Kowalski cut him off. "Won't they mind you telling me all this?"

"Nah, you're one of us. Anyway, Javier's ADHD, and Katie, James and Charlie are all on the autistic spectrum…"

"Like me?" Kowalski said, in surprise. She'd guessed that with Katie and James but Charlie she wasn't expecting.

"Yeah. Although Charlie's only minor, his main thing is that he can't read…"

"He can't read!?" Kowalski said without thinking. She was so used to reading that she couldn't imagine not being able to.

Dave shot her a look. "Yeah, don't go on about it alright? He's a bit sensitive about it…doesn't like being thought of as stupid, you know what I mean?"

"If he's so sensitive about it why are you telling me?"

"I told you, you're one of us now. Part of our community, you know? Anyway, I'm just trying to provide a bit of an explanation. So what do you think?"

Kowalski paused, mulling it over. She could see where Charlie was coming from, she was more than familiar with the sense of male pride, having three brothers, and she struggled with apologising a bit as well, afraid the other person would throw it back in her face. But still…

"It sounds like a bunch of excuses. Sorry Dave, but if he wants to apologise, he's gotta do it himself. He's eighteen; he needs to learn actions have consequences." She mentally kicked herself for sounding like Alice as she walked away from the artistic genius.

Back at home Kowalski spent half an hour ranting to her long-suffering brothers.

"I can't believe it! He got Dave to apologise to me! How low is that? No - he wants to apologise he's gotta do it himself."

"Well, no offence, Kowalski, but you're not exactly a saint on the apologising front either." Skipper pointed out, leafing through the newspaper. He was trying to find a job; he hadn't wanted to go to college; just wanting to get into the world of work. He was finding it harder than he thought it would be.

His sister stopped pacing and glared daggers at him. "I do so apologise!"

"Kowalski, newsflash, asking 'Are we cool?' is not the same as a proper apology."

Kowalski was about to retort when Private spoke up. "Can you two give it a rest? I'm trying to study…"

"What are you studying?" His sister asked, distracted by the idea of learning. Silently Skipper sighed in relief, he didn't like arguing with Kowalski, she had a tendency to call on a lot of stuff he didn't understand to prove her point.

"Maths. I hate GCSE's! I just want them to be over, why have we got to learn this stuff anyway?" Private whined, putting his head in his hands.

"It's fun." Kowalski grinned, dragging a chair up and nudging Rico to move over.

"Earth to Kowalski it's not fun, its bloody hard work…"

"What area are you working on?"

"Of what?"

"Of maths!"

"Oh…areas, perimeters, that kind of thing."

"Okay, so what you need to do…" As Kowalski launched into geek-speak Skipper and Rico shared a smile. Kowalski might be a total nerd but she was their total nerd.

**Okay a couple of things, number one sorry if it seems a bit choppy, I'm just setting up what's to come over the next couple of chapters. Also the Music Therapy thing isn't something I've made up, it does actually exist, look it up if you want.**

**Hope your all well and I'll see you in the next chapter. **


	15. The experiment

**Okay, first things first, thank you for the feedback on the oc's, I appreciate it. Secondly this chapter takes place at ST Nick at the end of the first week back.**

**With the experiment that James was doing, I saw it on an episode of 'Prove it', so I think it would work.**

**See chapter 1 for the disclaimer. **

Kowalski tapped her fingers on the table, looking up at the clock, it was Friday and there was 10 minutes of school left. Only ten minutes until she could get out of the classroom, go to science club and spend an hour talking to James about how a body decomposes.

The room was silent apart from the sound of Javier singing 'Be our guest' behind her. After a couple of bars she whipped round to face him. "Would you mind shutting up!? Some of us actually want to learn, here."

Javier made a clicking sound, stopped banging the tune on the table and said. "Sorry, I keep forgetting I'm doing it."

"Well kindly remember." Kowalski said, shortly turning back to her work. Thirty seconds passed before Javier started it again.

"SERIOUSLY! SHUT UP!" The black-haired girl screeched, causing everyone except Daisy to look up in alarm.

"Kowalski, cool it…" Rhiannon began, but was cut of halfway through by:

"It's not my fault! Tell him to shut up!"

"It's not my fault I can't stand silence!" Javier snapped back.

"GUYS!" Rhiannon yelled, when she got their attention she took a deep breath and carried on. "Right, Javier, Kowalski has a point, I know you and Katie both don't like silence, but there are others in this room."

"Have none of you pointed this out to him before, you imbiciles?"

"We sort of got used to it over time." Dave explained. "Don't forget we have all known each other since primary school."

"Whatever." Kowalski muttered, turning back to her work. She was really grouchy today for some reason.

A couple more minutes silence until Katie said to Javier. "What song where you singing anyway?"

Kowalski gritted her teeth and tried to block them out. However that proved to be impossible.

"Beauty and the beast's 'be our guest'"

"Oh really? I haven't seen that in ages."

"Neither have I, but you know what I'm like, songs just float into my head."

"Mmm, that happens to me to…" As Javier and Katie descended into conversation about childhood movies, Kowalski found herself seeing an advantage to being deaf; it was probably a lot easier to concentrate. Daisy hadn't even looked up at any point during the exchange.

Five minutes passed and just at the minute Kowalski was going to scream in frustration the bell rang. Thanking god she collected her stuff and made her way out the door and to the labs, privately wondering how James managed to get his stuff and get out the door way before she did.

After signing in and having a quick catch-up with Mr Edwards Kowalski shot to the science lab, now in a much better frame of mind.

However, for the second time she stopped dead, again it was because she saw James. Except this time he had two speakers, a long bit of rope and some flags and was currently attaching one end of the rope to one of the speakers using seletape. "What on earth…"

Looking up he nodded at her. "Hello."

"Hey…what's this?"

"This is an experiment. I saw it on TV and I'm gonna try replicate it."

"Yeah, because everything on TV is so realistic and do-able." Kowalski snarked, sitting down next to him.

He threw her a look and explained. "This was an educational TV show about science. It's called 'Can you do it?. Have you heard of it?"

"No, but then again I rarely watch the telly."

"Seriously?"

"Yeah, you try living in a house with abut ten people in it. You barley get 10 minutes peace."

James nodded as he finished attaching the other side, chucked Kowalski the seletape and said, in a rather bossy tone. "Right, grab some of that and attach the flags to the rope, that's er…if you weren't planning on doing something else?" He finished sheepishly, catching himself just in time.

She shrugged. "Well I was going to look at the effect of decomposition on the body, but this seems much more fun. What's the point of the experiment?"

"Well, basically I'm going to switch the speakers on and play some music. The sound waves from the speakers should cause the rope to vibrate and therefore the flags to vibrate as well. Well, that's the plan anyway…"

"Sounds great! So it's a study of acoustics, then?"

"Yeah, if you want to science it up. I just felt like doing it. You like using big words don't you?"

"Yeah."

"Why?"

"None of your business." Kowalski snapped, folding her arms defensively.

James made a surrender sign and said quickly. "Okay then, I was just asking, shall we do the experiment then?"

Placated Kowalski nodded. James grinned, played the music and within thirty seconds the flags were shaking. "Cool!" Kowalski grinned.

"Not really."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, it's actually quite warm today…"

"I-it's an expression, James." Kowalski explained. "Cool means good."

The blonde raised an eyebrow while shooting her a suspicious look. "How do you know?"

"Rico told me, and Rico knows about slang." She assured him. They sat together watching the flags and talking about science in general until Mr Edwards stuck his head round the door and reminded them they had to go home.

"So, I'll see you Monday then?" James checked as the stepped outside the gate.

"Yeah, see you Monday." Kowalski said, fighting the urge to smile – and failing.

As James walked home, Kowalski set of in the opposite direction, a lot happier than what she had been earlier.


	16. The first sing-of

**Hey. I've had a bit of a stressful day at work, so I'm posting this chapter. It focuses on the Madagascar lot and takes place at the end of the last chapter.**

**I do not own any of the songs mentioned.**

**See chapter 1 for the disclaimer.**

"I'm back!" Kowalski yelled, shutting the door behind her.

"We're in the living room!" Skipper called back. He, once again, was flipping through the newspaper. Rico was reading a textbook and looking like he wanted to throw it threw a window and Private was quite happily watching 'My little pony'

"Seriously?" Kowalski raised an eyebrow upon seeing it.

"It's good! Now, shut up – this is the best part." Private said, waving a hand dismissively at her.

Kowalski rolled her eyes and started upstairs; her mind annoyingly kept drifting back to James though. That experiment was really quite good; she'd have to try that sometime…

"Talking to yourself is the first sign of madness." Gloria said, making the black-haired girl jump. She hadn't realized she was talking out loud.

"I'm taking it, it went well with James then?" Gloria pressed, sitting up.

"Yeah, it went great! He showed me this really cool experiment…" Kowalski was about to launch into explaining it when there was a knock on the door. She rolled her eyes and turned to answer it while Gloria breathed a sigh of relief and put her mind to answering the quiz she was doing. 'How to tell if you and your boyfriend are meant to be.'

Meanwhile Kowalski was glaring. "What do you want, Rico?"

"I just want to see my favorite sister – is that a crime?"

"Two things, first of all, I'm your only sister, secondly what do you want?"

"Why do you always assume I want something?"

"Because you only call me 'you're favorite sister' when you do? Sit." Kowalski waved a hand towards her bed.

"Woof woof." Rico muttered, doing so.

"What do you want, Rico?" Kowalski repeated, sitting next to him.

"I want you to tutor me."

"Really?"

"Yes, Private was going on about how you helped him, and I'll be honest with you – this physics is hard. Can you give me a hand?"

Kowalski considered for all of two seconds before saying. "Sure."

On Monday Kowalski entered the classroom shaking like a leaf. "You alright?" James asked in concern.

"Fine, thanks James, just a little nervous."

"No need to be." Javier said who was currently sitting crossed-legged on top of Mrs Maple's desk. "You'll be fine."

"It's easy enough for you to say that, Javier, you're a performing expert. The rest of us however aren't."

Javier opened his mouth to argue when Maple-Syrup walked through the door. "Javier, off my desk this instance."

Rolling his eyes, Javier hopped off and sat at his own desk.

"Right, I hope you're all looking forward too today. I wish you all luck, now, get out your books…"

"Er, miss? When's the competition?" Kowalski asked.

"Oh, not till after lunch, dear."

Of course it isn't. Kowalski thought, mentally banging her head against her own desk. The time seemed to drag by agonizingly slowly until eventually lunch had passed and they were all back in the classroom.

Taking a look around the young scientist tried to guess at what the others were feeling. Charlie and Javier were defiantly excited, Charlie had a massive grin on his face and Javier was finding it even more difficult to stay still than usual.

Daisy seemed indifferent in that usual icy way of hers, hunched over yet another book; that girl always brought a book to school with her as if trying too prove her status as an English genius.

Rhiannon was smiling slightly, twiddling with her hair. She managed to seem both nervous and excited at the same time, if that was even possible, banging her cane against the desk in a slow methodical rhythm, clearly in deep thought.

Katie was rapping her fingers on the desk and licking her lips nervously while Dave kept swigging the coke he always brought to school with him as well as drawing some quick sketches on the notebook he always had with him.

The only one who seemed relatively cool about the whole thing was James, who was staring off into space again. He had a habit of doing that.

"Right." Maple-Syrups voice suddenly broke through her thoughts, forcing Kowalski's attention onto her. "Here's what's going to happen, I am going to give you a bit of paper, you are going too write your name on it, then I am going to select one at random and you will sing. Any questions?"

"Full or first?" Charlie asked.

Maple-syrup looked at him. "What do you mean?"

"Full name or first name only?"

"It doesn't really matter…"

"Yes it does!" Charlie suddenly snapped, banging his fist on the table causing everyone to jump.

"Full." The teacher said, immediately. "Full names, please."

The order ended up going like this.

Dave Powa – 'Cooler than me' by Mike Posner. _He had quite a good voice, not strikingly brilliant by any means, but not ear-splitting bad either. He kept fighting a smile the whole way through it though, which ruined it a bit._

Katie Mills – 'Shut up and let me go' by The Ting-Tings. _Clearly enjoyed herself and tried to insert some dancing in between, which considering she was as good at dancing as Kowalski herself was, didn't go so well. Her voice was defiantly not brilliant however, it was barley even achieving good._

Rhiannon Rodgers – 'I know where I've been' by Hairspray or more specially, Queen Latifah. _Like Dave, not spectacularly good, but not completely rubbish either. She stood still for the whole performance, one hand gripped firmly on her cane and the other hanging loose by her side. She looked straight ahead for the whole performance which was quite effective in making her look like she was about to stride into battle._

Charlie Small – 'Ladies choice' by Hairspray or more specially Zac Efron. _He did really well in enthusiasm, dancing during the gap and dancing well. He could sing a bit, but struggled with the high notes._

Daisy Makenzie – 'Read all about it' by Emeli Sande. _Considering she's deaf, she did ok, reading the lyrics off the whiteboard. Of course the disadvantage to this was that she had her back to them._

Javier Uppel – 'Don't run away' by Let it shine or more specifically Tyrel Jackson. _Obviously not a performing expert for nothing he absolutely killed the song and managed to bust off a couple of nifty dance moves as well. Did the whole performance with a smile._

James Petit – 'Strange' by The Feeling. _He had quite a nice voice, although the most stunning thing about his performance was that he brought a guitar and played it. It was ruined a bit by his head nodding the whole way through it though._

Then finally it was her. She shuffled to the front, looked at everyone's expectant faces and found herself wanting to be at home. However, she took a deep breath, sucked it up like Skipper always told her too, and started to sing. She hadn't known what to sing, so she just went with a song she liked and she felt comfortable with. So 'Telephone' by Lady Gaga it was then. Kowalski ended up forgetting everyone was there and just got lost in the music. When she finished she heard the obligatory clapping that accompanied everyone's performance and felt proud.

"Hey." James said, as Maple-Syrup collected the votes and quickly counted them. "What was that?"

Kowalski frowned. "Me singing?" Dear god, I wasn't that bad was I? She thought, panicking slightly. Oh god, what if everyone had their fingers in their ears and she just hadn't noticed? Visions of herself sounding like a cat reached her and she felt sick.

Thankfully though, James reassured her. "No, your singing was good. I meant that fit thing you were having."

Kowalski paused for a second, wondering what he was going on about before her face cleared and she said, in a voice made of daggers. "You mean my dancing?"

"Is that what it was? I thought you were having an epileptic fit."

"Says the bobble head."

Now it was his turn to frown. "What?"

Kowalski started nodded her head to demonstrate what he'd been doing. "I don't do that!"

"Yeah you do!"

"Don't!"

"Do!"

"I don't!"

"James you so do…" As the two of them started to bicker they missed the knowing grins shared around the rest of their classmates.


	17. Card Game

**Hey! Hope you guys are good. I have had over 1,000 views to this story; I'm really pleased with that! Also thanks to those of you who have had the patience to feedback on my questions, it means a lot.**

**Okay, on with the story, this next chapter takes place during the next week on the Saturday.**

**See chapter 1 for the disclaimer.**

"I've got the cards." Private announced, stepping into Skipper and Rico's shared bedroom. The reason they shared was because nobody else in the house would put up with Rico.

"Great, shuffle 'em then, and I'll deal." Skipper ordered, trying to find a comfy position to sit in.

This was 'the card hour' as Private called it. Every week they'd play a game of cards and catch up with each other.

"How's your physics coming?" Kowalski asked Rico, as Skipper dealt.

He pulled a face. "Terrible. I still don't get it."

"Obviously we need to go over it again."

"Great, I'm free next week…"

"No, we'll go over it after dinner. Right then, let's start."

So they did and played for 10 minutes until Private won the first round. "Yes!" He punched the air.

"Yeah, yeah. I let you win." Skipper said, lazily.

"You did not!"

"I did so, you watch young Private, I'll cream you next round."

"Talking of rounds, Kowalski, what happened with your competition?"

"Wha-" Kowalski looked up, a bit confused. She's been trying to figure out how the hell Private beat her.

"Your singing competition. How'd it go?" Skipper said slowly, breaking it down for her.

She sighed. "It went well. Rhiannon sang Hairspray's 'Big, blonde and beautiful.' She was quite good actually, it's just that…" Kowalski laughed a little and her brothers shot looks at each other.

"Nah, I'm fine, it's just she was waving her cane around a lot and at the end she accidentally managed to knock over a load of books. Mrs Maple was furious and Rhiannon was like 'What have I done?'. You had to be there. And Dave sang Paolo Nutini's pencil full of lead, which was brilliant. Charlie sang Ed Sheeran's 'You need me but I don't need you', Javier sang 'You belong to me' by Let it shine and James sang 'Loneliness' by the Feeling. He was great…they were great! They were all…great."

Private and Rico sent each other smug glances noticing the blunder, while Skipper frowned. "And when do we get to meet this James then?"

Looking like a deer in the head lights, Kowalski looked at him. "What?"

"You heard me."

"You don't. There's no need to, there's nothing going on between me and James, he's a mate, that's all."

"That's not what Gloria said. Apparently you have a crush on him." Skipper countered, while Rico and Private wolf-whistled causing Kowalski to go red and splutter.

"N-no! I-I do not, he's, we're not…NO!"

Skipper grinned while holding his hands up. "Okay, chill out, I was just saying, if this guy ever does ask you out, we're meeting him, okay?"

"Sure, sure whatever, can we just get back to the game now?" Grinning Skipper dealt the next hand.


	18. Talking over the punching bag

**Hey! So this next chapter takes place in Saint Nick. **

**See chapter 1 for the disclaimer.**

On Monday Kowalski was early. The reason she was early was because Alice had decided to try dropping them off in reverse order which meant Kowalski was first.

After doing nothing for 10 minutes she got up and went to the hall. She didn't want to use any of the equipment in there; she just wanted to sit in there. It was more interesting than the classroom.

What she didn't bank on however, was Charlie being there. St Nick had a punching bag and Charlie was currently beating it to death.

She watched for a couple of seconds and then coughed to get his attention. When that didn't work she tried coughing a bit louder. When that didn't work she kicked the door, which worked. Charlie stopped punishing the bag and whipped round to face her.

"Whaddya want?"

"Chill out, bear grills, I just want to sit in here 'till the bells rings – is that alright?" She asked, already walking to the bench.

"I guess so." Charlie muttered. Five minutes more of punching occurred until Charlie stopped and took a swig of water. Kowalski, who was watching him, took that opportunity to ask.

"Can I have a go?"

"You want to punch this?"

"I've seen Rico and Skipper do it a couple of times. They won't let me though. Skipper says I should stick to the running machines."

He looked her over and then shrugged. "Okay then." So she did, while Charlie stood behind her giving her pointers.

"Thumb on the outside, jab, what was that? My granny can throw better punches!"

"Oh, that hurt." Kowalski said, smiling a bit and she swung her fist back and whacked the punching bag again.

"Nice one! You're quite good, you know, for a girl."

"Gee thanks."

Immediately realizing his blunder Charlie hastily tried to correct himself. "Not of course that I'm saying girls are rubbish at sports, it's just boy's tend to be better, but yeah, girls, girls are alright. I mean, Katie's good, and 'annon can do some damage with that cane of hers and yeah er…please stop me…"

"Shut up. How's that?"

"Good thanks."

"So, you alright after being voted out?" Both Charlie and Rhiannon had been voted out the previous week.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine. I was expecting it, you know."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, we've been doing this for a while and you sort of get to know everyone's strength on the singing front. It's changed a bit this year, what with you here, but normally it's Javier and James that win."

Kowalski took a swig of her own water and then looked at him. "What happens after they win?"

"Then they go through to the next round. Four more weeks with whomever wins from the other classes. Then when that's over its four more with the winners of the houses. It's alright, drags on a bit, but the advantage is that you get to learn a lot more songs. Heck, I'd never even heard of Taylor Swift before someone sang one of her songs, so yeah. It's good."

"Does it really go on that long? What about lessons?"

"Lessons still happen sadly. Technically this happens during 'Music Therapy,' at least that what it says on the planners. So, believe it or not it does actually technically count as a lesson."

Kowalski stared at him for a few minutes before running her hand through her hair and saying. "That's crazy."

Charlie laughed. "I know. Er…by the way…about McDonalds, I just wanted to say I'm sorry about barging into you like that. I didn't mean to, I was just trying to get to Dave. I had to leave him outside and he tends to panic if he's left on his own..."

"Why didn't you just bring him with you?"

"He also gets anxious if he's in a place with lots of people. It's sort of a lose-lose situation so I went with the option that would cause him least embarrassment…"

"Yeah, I get it. Melman panics a bit as well. He's in my care-home. He's a bit of a health-freak and so he panics if there's like a spot of dirt on him anywhere."

"Hmm. Want to have another go?"

"Yeah sure."


	19. Alex's un-needed self-esteem boost

**Hey! Hope you're all having a good week. **

**See chapter 1 for the disclaimer.**

Next week on Friday Skipper was leafing through the newspaper again. "I think I'll be a police officer." He said, out of the blue.

Private looked at him. "A police officer?"

"Yeah, seems a cool job. Catching criminals. I like the sound of it."

"Er…Skipper?" Melman piped up, from behind one of his textbooks. "Police officering is a highly-skilled job. You can't just waltz in there."

Skipper threw him a glance. "Oh yeah? How would I get in there, then?"

"Well, you could try becoming a police community support officer."

"A what?"

"A police community support officer, or PCSO for short, basically it's like being a police officer but without some of the higher levels of stuff. You should check it out."

Skipper considered as they heard the front door slam. "Maybe I will. Thanks Melman."

"MARTY! ALEX!" That yell was from Kowalski who had just come in the door after another science session with James.

As they heard Marty and Alex trot down the stairs, Skipper, Rico and Private looked at each other and then all made for the door wanting to know what was going on.

Kowalski looked like thunder. "Marty. You know when we went out for Alex's birthday and he had that dance-off?"

"Yeah."

"You recorded it, didn't you?"

"Yes…"

"You then put it online where it has had over 100 views, didn't you?"

Marty grinned at that. "Yeah it's definitely been our most successful video yet…wait, how did you know how many views it's had?"

"I was wondering when you were going to catch on. Today at school my classmates were gathered around Javier's laptop. He likes to keep an eye on YouTube, too see if anything good comes up. Well, he saw something and was so impressed he decided to bring it in and show the rest of us."

Marty was smiling now, eyes twinkling with excitement. "That was our video!?"

"Wait." Alex held a hand up. "Javier's the performing expert isn't he?"

"Self-proclaimed yes." Kowalski stated, looking at Alex a bit suspiciously.

Alex himself was now smiling as widely as Marty was. "I knew it! I KNEW IT! ALICE!"

"You've done it now." Gloria said to a confused Kowalski.

"What? What have I done?"

"Ever since he came back from school, Alex has been going on about a competition. It's a dancing show, you know, what's it called…"

"Winner takes it all." Melman said, Gloria shot him an appreciative look and carried on.

"Yes that's it. They're holding auditions for it and Alex wants to enter. Alice talked him out of it, on the basis that he lost the competition, but now you've given him a self-esteem boost."

"Which he didn't need." Rico added. It was true; Alex was ridiculously, sometimes hilariously self-confident.

"Well, I didn't know did I!?"


End file.
